Sunday, October 30, 2011

Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum!

On Saturday night, Nate and I took a little walk to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum not far from our apartment. It was such a fun museum! We saw some of the craziest things! I was laughing because the whole time I was walking around with my mouth open. I was in shock at each thing that I saw and I kept on thinking, Ya right! This is unbelievable! That could never really happen! But everything in this museum is true, which is what makes it so great. I captured some of my favorite moments on camera for you all to have a sneak peek......

This band that was playing was in the front lobby. They are wax people of course. Look at the lady on the right with the gold rings around her neck. We watched a little movie about a village in Thailand who believe that the longer your neck looks, the more beautiful you are. So starting from a young age, the girls wear these gold metal rings around their neck to make their necks longer. They start with one ring, and then every year they add 1 more ring. They stop at 25 rings. We saw pictures of these ladies necks and they looked disgusting. Their necks did really look longer, but we saw an X-ray of one of the ladies and really what had happened was their spines and vertebrae were compressed down making their necks appear longer but really, they are just ruining their back bones. Crazy huh?

This was a fun part of the museum. There is a farmer in Wisconsin that takes on animals that are born with genetic malfunctions. Usually these types of animals would be killed off right after they are born, but this farmer pays money to adopt them and care for them at his farm out of the goodness of his heart! Sometimes they die suddenly anyway, but there are a lot of these animals that live to a long age. Then when they die, he donates them to the museum for people to be made aware that some animals are born like this. First, we have the 2 headed sheep and then the 2 headed cow who also has legs growing up out of his body!

This is an art piece that is made completly from stamps! The person that made this had a medical disorder that made them fearful of leaving their home and going outside so they stayed in practically their whole life. They used their time making pictures with stamps!

Here is a picture of Nate with John F. Kennedy made completely from butterflies and other bugs!

This picture is made purely from gumballs! From far away you can see the picture, but up close, it just looks like a bunch of gum!

Here is a man that had the longest nose ever known to man. I don't remember his name but this is a wax replica of him and his long nose! Now I thought my nose was big!

This is a picture of Princess Diana, and guess what it is made from!...Dryer lint! How cool is that?

These pictures are made completely from 1 pence coins. Crazy how they get to be so many different shades over the years.

This is a crazy one.........They had her faced with her back towards us and then after reading the plaque which I posted below, you could press a button and have her turn around. Wow......poor lady! The world's ugliest woman, "The Mule-Faced Woman!" But she did end up getting married! There is still hope for everyone! :)

This is what Nate would look like if he only had half of his body......they showed 3 really inspiring short films about people who have been born like this- with only half of their body. It is amazing the things that they were able to do! Play football, roller skate, and even have a normal child!

I know, I know.....this is not my best shot.....but focus on the lady to my right. If you look closely, she was born with 2 brown irises in each eye! Crazy!

Can you imagine how hot he would get in the summer? Dang! That's a lot of hair! Some people complain about how their hair is too thin and they don't have enough of it. This guy has way too much! At least he used himself wisely by joining the circus!

This is called a chastity belt! They used to make ladies wear this metal bolted lock "diaper" when their husbands went away to make sure they didn't cheat on him! Can you imagine? What about honesty and loyalty, instead of force......

The world's tallest man! This is what he looked like compared to me! I am 5'2, so can you imagine? Dang!

Nate says he wants to be buried in one of these when he dies...........I guess we will have to see. :)

Shrunken heads! They were pretty cool to look at, but very disgusting! Just think, a real head!

This is the mirror maze which was way fun. You can't even tell where you are going because there are so many mirrors. You have to be careful because you sometimes mistake a mirror for an opening and then bang your head againest the mirror. Ouch!

This was definitly a good time! We would recommend this museum to anyone! So much fun!